Electronic devices, such as smartphones, are increasingly supporting use cases, where for certain functionality, it is desirable for the device to be able to support a larger display size. For example, larger display sizes can be desirable for viewing visual content as part of a media player or a browser, as well as for supporting the visual presentation of information as part of an application or program that is being executed by the device. However, such a trend needs to be balanced with a general desire for the overall size of the device to stay the same and even decrease in one or both of dimension and weight.
In an attempt to support larger display sizes without increasing the overall size of the device, device manufacturers have increasingly dedicated a larger percentage of the exterior surface to a display, where the display in many instances has grown in one or more dimensions to a size that dominates a particular surface, such as the front surface of the device. In at least some of these instances, the display has been allowed to extend into areas that had previously been used to support user inputs, such as areas of the surface that have previously supported a keypad, such as a numeric keypad.
In order to accommodate such an encroachment, at least some displays have evolved to support touch sensitivity including the ability to detect and decipher a user's input through an ability to detect a user interaction with different particular portions of the display, which in some instances can correspond with a visual representation of one or more objects, such as keys arranged to form a virtual keypad, whereby the location of the detected user interaction relative to the display can be used to distinguish between a desired interaction with different ones of the multiple keys.
Even more recently, device manufacturers have experimented with flexible displays, that might allow a display to extend across multiple housing parts and/or surfaces of the device including, for example, housing parts that can be selectively folded to support multiple use configurations including different respective sets of device dimensions to accommodate convenient user handling for each of multiple different sets of circumstances associated with the multiple use configurations. For example, when viewing visual content as part of a media player or browser, it may be convenient to have the device unfolded on a table, a desk, or the user's lap, to allow a larger size surface across which the display extends and with which visual content can be conveyed, as well as a larger surface through which the user might interact using an associated touch sensitivity. In other instances, it may be more convenient for the device including portions of the display to be folded to better support the device being sized so as to be held within the hand of the user, such as when the device is being held proximate the user's face to support voice communications. When folded, the device may also be more conveniently sized for storage, such as placement within one's pocket or purse.
While some more recently developed displays can allow for some degree of bending and folding, folds with a tighter radius of curvature in these displays can sometimes still be a challenge. The present inventors have recognized, that the tighter radius of curvature may be avoided by placing the display across the outside surface of the corresponding folding housing elements. However on the outside surface, the display may be more exposed to potentially damage-inflicting outside influences. The inventors have further recognized, that a third housing part, which is movable with respect to the other housing parts in at least some use configurations, can serve as at least a partial cover for the display placed on the outside surface of the other housing parts, thereby reducing the potential for harmful exposure. Furthermore, the third housing part can be used to support some use configurations, as well as to receive the placement of further device elements including some electronic components.